Police strict with self-discipline

Local law enforcement keep themselves in check through 2012

Jan. 4, 2013

Written by

The Marion Star

Progressive Discipline

Police use a five-step system, referred to as “progressive discipline” by Major Randy Caryer, in internal affair cases. More serious issues can immediately be given stronger actions. 1. Counseling — The lowest form of punishment is reserved for minor violations. Counseling means a written notice on the offense and why it was wrong is kept in the officer’s personnel file for six months. 2. Reprimand — If an officer has received a violation in the last six months and is under counseling, a reprimand is given. A one-year probationary period is added with an additional notice of the violation kept in the personnel file. 3. Short-Term Suspension — If a reprimand is violated, officers can receive a suspension. These can be taken out of vacation days if OK’d. Suspensions can be as short as one day. 4. Long-Term Suspension — While there is no length to how long a suspension may last, long-term suspensions are rare and given out in extreme cases. 5. Demotion or Termination — In severe cases, or in instances of multiple offenses, the police department can choose to reassign or fire an officer. While rare, they have happened in Marion before.

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MARION — The Marion Police Department released its internal affair investigations from 2012. There were 25 recorded instances requiring disciplinary action.

“It’s keeping the police force on the up-and-up,” said Major Randy Caryer. “It’s like with your kids, if you let your kids’ discipline slide too much, you run into bigger problems down the road. So we’re fairly strict. Hopefully, we take care of things before they become a problem.”

Caryer said the number of offenses was on the lower end for the police.

“That’s even minor stuff,” he said. “We didn’t have any really big major stuff this year, thank goodness.”

The numbers are significantly lower than totals in the last few years. While the 25 investigations matched the 2011 total, there were 35 reviews in 2010. A span from 2005 to 2007 saw 155 internal investigations.

Caryer attributed the recent decrease to fewer and more mature officers.

“The youngest guy here has been here for over 10 years,” he said. “If you look back at 2003, 2004 or 2005, we were running upwards of 50 or 60 internal affairs. We were up to 66 people and we probably had 20 officers with less than five or ten years experience here. They’re more likely to mess up.”

Two suspensions, the harshest internal punishments dealt all year, were given in January.

One officer crashed his vehicle Jan. 12, resulting in more than $12,000 in damages.

“An unmarked Marion City Police car was on Ohio 15 entering onto Interstate 75 and slid on wet roads on the entrance ramp and clipped a semi,” Caryer said.

“Our car suffered most of the damage amount. He was on his way to BCI for a case investigation. No one was injured.”

Caryer said the officer involved has no prior history of discipline, but received a suspension for the amount of damage.

A second officer was suspended for losing a service pistol while pursuing a burglary suspect on Jan. 23. The officer lost the gun on North State Street, according to Lt. Daryl Burbaugh.

A local resident found the gun by a downspout near his home and returned it to the police five days later. The resident declined the $500 reward for the return of the firearm.

Both officers were suspended for one day of work, taken out of banked vacation days.

The most common instance of a violation was for failure to report for special duty, which account for seven of the offenses.

Special duties include ball games and school functions, according to Caryer. Many of the events are filled months in advance and occasionally officers “may forget about it.”

“It’s not your normal work hours,” he said. “It’s off-duty work. But we’re still in control of the officers for off-duty work.”

Caryer said they can often find fill-in duty in case a special duty is missed.

Officers that failed to report for special duties were not allowed to sign up for new assignments during their probationary period.

Four citizen complaints were placed throughout 2012. Three of them — one for inappropriate conduct, one for calling a subject ignorant, and one for using excessive force — were all deemed to be proper conduct in their line of duty.

The fourth, reported Dec. 25, is still under investigation.

Caryer said last year’s citizen complaints were “fairly low.” The police had nine citizen complaints in 2011, and six in 2010.

“The guys are pretty good about trying to make sure the lieutenants advise us if they think there was an issue,” he said.

Caryer said most citizen complaints reveal the officers displayed proper conduct, adding they “have had years where that wasn’t the case.”

Two officers received disciplinary actions for violating the tobacco use policy, one in March and one in December.

“Employees are not allowed to use tobacco products while in paid status,” Caryer said. “It’s that simple.”

One of the officers received a reprimand for using tobacco. The other two reprimands in 2012 came from failing to report for special duty in November and a car accident that resulted in $2,237 in damages in December.

Other minor violations resulting in counseling included failure to follow written directives, use of force, delayed alarm dispatch and inattention to duty.

Caryer said he is satisfied with the way they have handled internal investigations with the department.

“In the past, we’ve had issues on the department with officers that have wound up losing their job eventually because of discipline issues,” he said.

“None of the guys want somebody here like that. Because in the public, if they see a guy messing up, they don’t necessarily see that as Joe Smith messing up; they see it as cops messing up. And they don’t like to be lumped all together like that. So the guys don’t like to see other guys doing things they shouldn’t be doing.”